Army Corps wants no-parking signs removed at Alum Creek

Wednesday

Mar 25, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 25, 2009 at 9:23 PM

Holidays used to bring a lot of people to the beach at Alum Creek Park, with so much traffic that the cars would spill out of the parking lot and onto the right-of-way along Lewis Center Road, said Chris Bauserman, Delaware County engineer.

Holidays used to bring a lot of people to the beach at Alum Creek Park, with so much traffic that the cars would spill out of the parking lot and onto the right-of-way along Lewis Center Road, said Chris Bauserman, Delaware County engineer.

Sometime in the late 1960s the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asked the county to install no parking signs along Lewis Center Road to stop that practice, he said.

In recent years beach traffic has lightened and the signs are no longer needed, according to the Corps of Engineers, who asked that they be removed, Bauserman told the county commissioners at their March 16 meeting.

The sides of the road have deteriorated and would be easier to maintain without the signs, which haven't been replaced since they were installed, the corps contends.

"I guess if they are not needed and could be a hazard ... I'm in favor of removing them as long as the Corps, understands that they will have to pay to have them reinstalled in the future," said commission president Tommy Thompson.

Commission vice president Ken O'Brien said while beach parking traffic may be down, traffic on Lewis Center Road continues to increase and he wasn't in favor of taking the signs down.

"If the signs don't look nice then I think we can afford to replace them," he said. "I see no reason to change something that is not a problem."

The vote to remove the signs was 2-1 with O'Brien casting the dissenting vote.

Also at the meeting Bauserman told the commissioners that all of the county bridges have been inspected and some load limits have been adjusted to conform to new rules that now take into account the condition of the bridge and how it was designed.

The commissioners approved the new load limits by a 3-0 vote.

Also at the meeting the commissioners changed the time of the March 30 meeting to 10 a.m.